Opinions Asked: Declawing Cats

In My Humble Opinion
41

Count me in the ‘not a big deal’ club. Two cats, both front declaw after they continued to destroy everything (and don’t give me that ‘water and lemon in a squirtbottle teaches them not to scratch’ crap, all it did was teach them not to scratch when we were home). There was no pain, they were both doped out of their minds for a couple days, which basically meant that they slept 22 hours a day instead of their typical 20.

And now, 7 years later, they can still run, jump, and climb, and when we added a 50 pound dog to the mix, they had her cornered within five minutes, so I don’t think that they’re lacking in the confidence department.

I’ve also cared enough about them to spend $3000 fixing one’s malformed back hips surgically, and have given the other insulin shots twice a day for the last 2 years, as well as all the typical pet owner stuff, so HOW DARE YOU insinuate that I love my furniture more than them, and HOW DARE YOU suggest that I ‘couldn’t be bothered’ to teach them not to destroy things. THEY couldn’t be bothered to learn NOT to destroy things, so I chose the path that would allow me to keep them.

-lv

42

I’m sort of on the fence with this issue.

I work at a vet’s office that does declaw procedures. I’ve seen it and I’ve assisted. There are two options. Option one involves pulling the claw out from the paw then either using clippers or a scalpel to cut the claw. Its the equivilent of cutting off a finger at the first knuckle. Option two involves cutting the tendon that allows the cat to extend the claw. The nail is still intact and can be manually extended by pressing on the paw, but can not be extended by the cat.

I understand why owners want to declaw their animals, especially if they are tearing up furniture or walls or floors or the owner. There are some people that will not give an animal a home if it has its claws, though. If having no claws means that an animal will be in a home, with love and attention and food and water and shelter, then the greater good of the home is worth the pain of the declaw.

Is it something that I would do? Probably not. My cats have their claws and I’ve trained them not to scratch the furniture. I believe that I can train my animals to behave appropriately, and I shouldn’t have to resort to surgury. And if my animal won’t listen, then there are other issues. But not everyone is willing to spend that amount of time training an animal.

As far as the proposed law against declawing–if the city passes that law, then the doctors and practices lose out. If someone can’t get a surgury done there for whatever reason, they will drive elsewhere, and spend the money elsewhere. And how would they possibly enforce this law? Would they fine everyone who has a declawed animal or take the animal away? There isn’t an easy way to enforce the law.

Spaying/neutering your pet is a good idea. Neutering male animals prevents spraying of urine to mark territory, and can also helps prevent infections and diseases of the reproduction organs. Spaying female animals prevents urinary tract infections, vaginal infections, yeast infections, and pregnancy (wanted or unwanted). I’ve seen owners who wanted their animals to have at least one litter who regretted it, because they couldn’t adopt out all of the offspring. There are already enough unwanted animals out there.

43

(bolding mine)

Sorry, k2dave, but you’re talking out of your ass.
My ex has three chihuahuas (Piglet, Mabel & Cupcake, for those of you as fascinated with other peoples’ pets’ names as I am), a breed which has protruding eyes. They always raised hell with my cat, Moops, who would sometimes swat back, claws OUT.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I prefered to let my cat suffer a few days discomfort, rather than let one of those stupid little dogs have an EYE CLAWED OUT!!! (The final straw was a fairly deep scratch on Piglet’s face, waaay too close to her eye).
And I would NEVER give my cat away to ANYONE, let alone a shelter.
k2, please don’t be so arrogant about anyone’s reasons for declawing their cat, it’s just ugly. My “excuse” was anything but. Intentionally hurting my cat was not something I did for kicks. I would expect that someone who has the compassion to work in an animal shelter for 5 years would extend it to his fellow humans as well.
That said, I would NEVER do it to another cat . (In hindsight, I should’ve just dumped the ex right then.) :rolleyes:

44

My cats were declawed by a laser method that did not remove any bone. They came home the next day with no sutures or bandages. They didn’t seem to be in any pain, as they were running around as usual.

All that was removed was the “nail.” My vet would not do either the tendon-cutting or the older cutting-off-the-first-bone method.

I would not have done it any other way. And it’s not something I jumped into lightly. The laser method, IMO, was not cruel.
There’s a longer story involved that I cant get into right now (getting ready for work), but my cat was a very aggressive clawer.
As LordVor said, my cat just clawed when I wasn’t home.

45

My ex-wife had a declawed cat. I also watched her once breaking the thorns off a rose. I wrote a little poem comparing these actions. The last lines went:

But what
can you do about
the woman

46

Pepper Mill and I are definitely in the Definitely Do Not Declaw camp. How would you like having your fingers nipped off at the first joint? Add all the usual arguments about cats not being able to defend themselves outside, etc. Also, two of our cats hate each other. We couldn’t declaw one without getting the other. Yet, even clawed, they haven’t inflicted lasting damage on each other. We’ve cured them of clawing furniture, and sticking to the clawing pads we’ve scattered around the house.
They sometimes get a little enthusiastic when they “knead”, but that just says it’s time to clip their nails, again.

47

Spay/neutering for house pets when done early enough gives you a kitten for the rest of their life. Some characteristics neven develope, most of which would not be good for a house pet.

A female in heat w/o a male cat to ‘relieve’ her is tourcher for her - and cat sex is no picnik either. A male cat that knows about a female in heat will try anything to get to her. But the biggest reason would be to prevent kittens. There are more then enough kittens to go around (though they are seasonal) without you producing more. And even if you can adopt them out, you are most likley preventing other kittens from being adopted.

why didn’t you include

We ask when we adopt out a cat if they plan to declaw, if they say yes, we ask why. We get some of the crap like you said. THey assume that the cat will scratch their child/other pet without even knowing the cat. We usually work with them to pick out a cat that would not use it’s claws on people even if provoked or adopt out a pre-declawed cat.

I would say that your dogs somehow provoked the cat, most likely by cornering him. Cats and dogs are very different animals and what is normal friendly doggie behavour is agressive cat behavor. I noticed that you did not say what caused such a responce from yoru cat.

48

I’ve had a number of cats over the years. And with most (not all but most), the spray bottle method combined with scratching posts and claw trimming worked just fine. But not with my current kitty.

She clawed the walls, the carpet, the furniture and she liked getting sprayed with the water. She loved her scratch pads and used them frequently but not as frequently as she used the walls and the furniture.

I also noticed how very quickly she recovered from the laser surgery. The day I brought her back home, she ran all around and clawed everything – well pawed it actually. She showed no signs of pain and absolutely zero signs of even noticing her claws were gone.

I am comfortable with the decision I made. I had tried all the methods for about 8 months with no signs of behavior modification. They didn’t work, and the laser surgery did.

49

Add me to the Do No Declaw Camp. I would NEVER have my cats declawed, even though they are both strictly indoors cats. We have had instances where one or both of them accidentally escaped and had they been declawed,they would’ve been unable to defend themselves. Luckily for us both times the cats were so fascinated by the long grass in the back yard (we hadn’t mowed for a couple of weeks)that they never got past the fence. Yes,our cats scratch but we have managed to teach them what they are and are not allowed to scratch. Ok…so the couches are starting to look a little pulled where Buttercup (1 1/2)occaissionally disobeys and scratches anyway. But so what? To me that’s nothing. I don’t mind it and I always try to catch her in the act when she does it. Our older one Rumpleteazer (almost 5 now) knows better.We’ve been able to train her to a kitty kabana someone left an apt we used to live in(I came home one day and it was sitting out in the hall next to my door.I looked around,nobody in sight.YOINK!In my apt it went).Declawing your cats is cruel, no questions about it.
I do,however,advocate spaying/neutering your pet. Buttercup had already been spayed when we adopted her at 8 wks old and Rumpleteazer was spayed when she was 6 mos old. It is one of the best things you can do for your pet. We once had a cat named Precious whom we adopted at 4 wks of age. We neglected to get her spayed at the time because we couldn’t afford it and when she went into her first heat, she STAYED in heat for three months STRAIGHT. Finally, the vet decided we had to do an emergency spay even though she was still in heat because it didn’t look like she would ever come out of it. I regret now not spaying her eariler,despite the cost. It was more expensive in the end to do the emergency spay than it would have been for a regular spay.

So…Don’t declaw your cats and DO get them spayed/neutered.:slight_smile:

IDBB

50

I basically run a home for declawed cats. I have 4 cats currently - The 3 that are declawed came that way from the pound.

Boy’s declawing wasn’t done right before we got him. (Yes his name is Boy - the only male, and we’re not real original with names) Lots of infection. The pound knew that he needed work and gave him to us. We had to have him RE-declawed - he’s fine now, but it was not fun there for awhile. Lots of bandages and treatments.

What’s funny is even now, 6 years later, whenever we scold him - he’ll raise a paw and give us the MOST pitiful look. “Why are you picking on the hurt kitty?”

Our latest addition to the herd is Baby (again, no flair for names) and she is not declawed. She never uses her claws on the furniture or carpet (or flesh). Only damage is to the rails of the waterbed, and as long as it’s not the waterbed getting shredded we don’t mind.

51

This is the first time that I’ve heard about this procedure, so I asked the doctors/owners of the animal hospital about it. The equipment needed to do the surgury is incredibly expensive, and our office is rather cramped. They do want to get the equipment, and should have it within the next 3-5 years. They just have to do a remodel/build an addition to the current building first. We would be the first vet to have that equipment in the area. No other local vet clinic is talking about the laser procedure. Other local vets are still doing the remove-the-bone procedure and haven’t even attempted the tendon method.

52

Our three cats are all declawed. However, it’s been…well, a matter of fairness.

See, my mom got a kitty right around the time I was born, because her old one had to be put down. K.C. was already declawed when we got her.

Then, 12 and a half years later, I got a cat for my 13th birthday (Zipper). We didn’t want to have to declaw…but the kitties were getting into tussles, and since K.C. was old and declawed, Zipper was just kicking her butt. So out came Zipper’s claws when she was spayed.

Then K.C. got sick, had kidney failure, and had to be put down (she would’ve died within a few days, and she was just…it was so sad, she couldn’t even eat, and she was meowing…). So mom got a new cat, Maggie…who started attacking Zipper. Similar story, claws came out. Ditto my sister’s new cat, Suki (who would attack Maggie). Poor Suki, though, got a bit of an infection from being spayed at the same time…we were really worried about her.

I plan on getting a cat once I’m on my own, and that cat won’t be declawed unless she is already when I get her (our family had always had female cats, and it’s going to stay that way probably). That way, should I ever decide I want a small dog, Miss Kitty can open up a can of whoop-ass if need be.

53

I have to add here, since many are taking this view, that CATS DO NOT HAVE HANDS ANALOGOUS TO HUMAN HANDS.

It is not accurate to relate the human distal phalanx to the tip of the feline phalanges, except in a very distant evolutionary manner. Plain and simple.

54

I just saw a thing on ABCNEWS.COM that West Hollywood wants to make de-clawing illegal. And other countries have done it as well. But I’m intrigued by the laser thing. I’m going to look around my area to see if anyone does it.

55

Reinhold, there’s multiple factors in the determination. It is obvious to most that cat’s do not use the tips of the feline phalanges the same way that humans use their distal phalanx, therefore from a ‘function’ standpoint I have no doubt that you are correct.

But what about from an ‘immediate trauma from the procedure’ standpoint? How does the bits removed from a cat relate to the fingertip of a human in regards to nerve density, etc? (IOW, does it (theoretically) hurt a cat to remove that bit as much as it would hurt to cut off your fingertip?)

-lv

56

If you read my post, they don’t have to do it like that anymore. I agree, that older way is cruel.

My vet showed me how the laser way is done. He popped out the claw, much like you do when you trim the nail, and just lasers off the claw. JUST the claw. NO bone. (He explained it, he didn’t actually show me)
When my cats were done, they had NO SUTURES, and NO BANDAGES. I went to see them at the vet’s the evening after the procedure and they were fine. They had NO BANDAGES AT ALL.
They only had to stay overnight because of the anesthesia for monitoring. I had full bloodwork done when I had it done, too, just for safety’s sake. That part was optional, but I choose to have it done.
They came home the next day around noon. They didn’t seem to be in any pain, since they were running around and jumping off the furniture and playing chase as usual. The only precaution I had to take was not to use clumping or clay litter for about 2 weeks. The vet recommended I use a brand called “Yesterday’s News” that’s made out of recycled newspapers.

Why I had it done:
My one cat Salem was a VERY aggressive clawer. She clawed everything. She didn’t like those sisal-rope things. She clawed scratching posts of all types, plus furniture, sofas, table legs, chair legs, door jambs, doors, hardwood floors, you name it. She also clawed when she kneaded. She could destroy one of those $5 cardboard clawing things in a day or two.
The other cat, Heifer, just followed her lead. “Oh, is this what we’re doing? Okey-dokey!”

I tried all the usual methods to get her to stop; the pennies in a can, the water-gun with water, the water-gun with water and lemon juice, a whistle, you name it. She just waited till the middle of the night or till we were all away. It was making things very stressful, especially when she tried to express her love by kneading, but clawed me instead.

I had several conversations with my vet about it, and he was the one who suggested the declawing. I was against it at first, because I assumed it was that older way, removing a part of her bone, and I thought that was just too mean. He explained the laser method, and assured me it was relatively painless, and since they were indoor-only cats, it would be fine.
He said since we had the two cats, we should go ahead and do both of them.

When we added the third cat, I again discussed it with him, and he suggested we do it while he was a kitten. He said it wouldn’t be fair to the other two for him to have claws while they didn’t.

We’re all much happier now, that she can “claw” all she wants to without destroying anything. She still does claw, by the way. All over the place. We say she’s sharpening her paws.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t think she realizes her claws are gone. I still have one of those cheapy cardboard things for her to scratch on. She gets on that thing and just goes to town, scratching away like there’s on tomorrow.

57

Salem must be related to my kitty, Chloe. She is the exact same way.

58

LOL, they really know how to play things don’t they.

59

Chalk me in on the ‘for’ side.

Both of my little beasties have been declawed in front. And I really don’t think they miss 'em one bit. They still ‘sharpen’ their claws and F.lea Bailey still uses her paws like little hands to pick up her kitty food piece by piece.

My girls got done in the bad old days before the laser thing, but both did pretty well after about a day. The only icky part was having to replace the litter with shredded paper…they tracked it ALL over the house.